Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Ángel in the outfield

Starting pitcher:
M.C. O'Connor

The Giants just don't like guys from Puerto Rico. That's got to be it. No Jonathan Sanchez, no Andrés Torres, and probably no Carlos Beltrán. Maybe if the island became the 51st state things might change. But for now I see a clear institutional bias, and I think an exposé will launch my investigative reporting career. But that's for later. Right now I have to say "adios" to a truly beloved Giant, Andrés Torres. He was the best CF in baseball in 2010 and a huge part of the championship team. Even as a mere 5th OF he won the hearts of fans with acrobatic catches, timely bombs, and pesky steals. We loved his athleticism, enthusiasm, and humility. I cried when he was given his richly-deserved Willie Mac Award. His long career, bouncing around the minors and majors before finally finding success in San Francisco, is storybook stuff. Losing JSanchez was definitely an "ouch" moment. He was a true Giant, and part of the Youth Corps that led us all to the land of milk and honey. But losing Torres is a gut punch. I loved that guy. It was impossible not to! When Aaron Rowand would stink, I'd grumble and moan and holler "get rid of the bum!" When Torres struggled I winced in silent pain and prayed that he'd look better the next time he was up. So long, Andrés, I wish you well. (You know he will go 11-17 with 2 HR, 4 SB, and 3 impossible catches when the Mets come to town next season. You just know he will.)

The Giants also gave up Ramón Ramírez in the trade. He pitched in 66 games last year and is a pretty solid guy to have in the bullpen. In 2010 he allowed only TWO earned runs in 27 IP during the stretch run after some rather rocky times in Boston (21 ER in 42 IP). That World Series roster is getting whittled down: JSanchez, Torres, Ramirez, Burrell, Ishikawa, Rowand, Uribe, and Rentería are all gone. There's a good chance that Mike Fontenot and Cody Ross will not return in 2012. Guillermo Mota is also on the bubble, maybe he'll be back with the open spot in the 'pen.

Ángel Pagán projects to be the Opening Day CF and that will likely move newcomer Melky Cabrera to LF. The UZR crowd will be happy (how can anyone trust a metric that rates Nate Schierholtz as a poor defender?). He looks like a good acquisition. We'll lose a little on defense (nobody fields the 8-spot like Torres) but probably gain a bit on offense. He turned 30 in July. A quick check of his B-R page shows he's from--wait for it--Puerto Rico!! So much for my thesis.

20 comments:

We sign Beltran, & we have 3 switch-hitting moderately powerful OF's. That is a great scenario.

I have always loved switch-hitters. Right now, we have at least 3 of them. 4 would be even better.

In the context of Andres Torres's life & career, he had an amazing, fantastic 2010. Evaluated against the best years of many other CF's, it wasn't all that great. Like you, I hoped & prayed in each at-bat last year that he would turn things around & felt his pain, when it didn't happpen. He was a lovable success story, but I don't expect him to have a big 2012 for the Mets. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised (or unhappy) if he was back on the Giants by July, when we are looking to get some more defensive depth at the trade deadline.

One wonders what becomes of Belt. Minors for more seasoning? Sort of a platoon with Huff and Pagan? Is Nate Schierholtz on the block? Is Belt on the block? Ron may not be convinced that Belt is a "can't miss" prospect, but no one will ever know unless he gets to play a decent amount. He possesses the kind of power that, neither Cabrera nor Pagan has. I would like to consider a Huff trade, but I do not think that is happening. As a matter of fact, I think the Giants are close to being done this year, unless they can snag a shortstop who can hit left handers. They are probably working on that. Maybe that is our team - H. Sanchez and Posey at the catcher position, Sandoval, Crawford, F. Sanchez, Huff, another SS and DeRosa in the infield, Belt, Melky, Nate and Angel in the outfield.

I couldn't figure out how to comment on the post about Torres, but just wanted to say I loved the opening paragraph. Reminded me a lot of the way I've felt about guys on my team (Braves). Well done. Different than most stuff u find these days which has hardly any emotion or feeling.

Another two for one deal. Giants are trying to save money and get younger even it it does not make sense. Giants had 2 years of control on Torres, and now they only have one year on Pagan. Giants traded a coveted relief pitcher which was what the Mets really wanted in addition to dumping Pagan. While on the Mets Pagan was called boneheaded for throwing to the wrong infielder time and time again. He also complained about batting leadoff. Is that the guy we want? Giants are dumping roster spots and trying to go on without adding a big name. I wonder if someone on their board does not have serious financial issues and needs to take home as much profit right now, and is a reason for the team not spending. I am sure I am not alone as a fan, but this off season has me extremely disappointed.

The fear of success. We are one good signing (hitter away from being a serious force), and the board of owners puts in a roadblock. Now we could also use a fifth starter not named Zito. It might be best if Huff gets hurt and Belt and Pill platoon at first. Belt needs to play.

LATEST NEWS: According to the genius-in-charge, we will not be signing Beltran or anyone else ... well, unless you count Keppinger or Fontenot (oh boy!). This team sucks. As mentioned above, we are one legit hitter away from being a seriously strong team, we are rich, & we are going nonsensically poor-boy. Oh, and we still haven't signed Cain or Lincecum. This looks to be a long, crappy season. We have parlayed our success on the field & in the box office into zilch (other than massive profits for the Team Owners). That is a nice way to reward the City & its fans.

LATEST NEWS: According to the genius-in-charge, we will not be signing Beltran or anyone else ... well, unless you count Keppinger or Fontenot (oh boy!). This team sucks. As mentioned above, we are one legit hitter away from being a seriously strong team, we are rich, & we are going nonsensically poor-boy. Oh, and we still haven't signed Cain or Lincecum. This looks to be a long, crappy season. We have parlayed our success on the field & in the box office into zilch (other than massive profits for the Team Owners). That is a nice way to reward the City & its fans.

'This team sucks' should be read as 'the upper management of this team sucks', & I feel totally justified in saying this.

They think nothing of committing $10M/year in a single day to 2 specialist relief pitchers who give about 1 inning of work between them every 2 days, but they won't consider paying just a little more than that for a difference-maker bat?

They are RAKING IN MILLIONS, but seem content to adopt a policy of 'infinitesimalism'.

The Giants are not a small-market team with an unsustainable revenue model. Under those circumstances, resting on your single Championship laurel for a few years might make some sense. No - the Giants are a relatively big market team, with a relatively new ballpark, filling up the stadium, selling merchandise like there's no tomorrow - the revenue model is very sustainable, so the commitment to continuous sizable improvement should be, too.

This is a team that could have set itself up to be a long-time big winner, without even splashing out the Pujols-type money. They won't even take medium-sized steps in a positive direction, & they will doom the team to mediocrity.

Opening Day is in April, so, as it stands now, I have 5 more months to rant about this. Sorry.

I have to wonder if the money paid out to Melky and Angel combined could have come close to buying Beltran. No matter. It seems like as soon as the season ended, the Giants decided that Andres Torres was not to be on the team in 2012. I do hope that this makes a team that is significantly better offensively, and by significantly, I mean better than drifting back towards average expected production.

Another note: I feel bad for St. Louis fans. Pujols sells his soul for $250 - $260 million to sign with the fucking angels for 10 years. Yee gods. Who does the guy think he is, Barry Zito? "It's not about the money all the time..." well, Albert, no it's not except when it is. You went from a world series team that was about to get back one of the best NL pitchers (Wainwright) and sold out for what? A second/third place team in a four team division? I just hope you really are 33 (or more) and will start your age-related decline just as soon as you can. You were one of the great Cardinals, but quit before you could be the greatest.

I actually think a Melky/Angel combo is better than Beltran. The Giants have shown that you can win with depth of a sort of interchangeable OF-type (Ross, Torres, Nate, etc)--speedy, avg hitter, solid all-rounder. I like our team. Buster & Pablo are studs, some rebound from Huff, FSanchez, some continuing maturation from Belt and Crawford, I don't think those are long shots. I think those are reasonable risks. I would not be surprised by a place-holder type at SS to take some pressure off Crawford. We might get a look at Gary Brown, Conor Gillaspie might be a useful Fontenot-type. Sure, I said "might." Hell, Albert Pujols might get injured and not deliver $254M worth of value.

I love our rotation, I think Vogelsong will be better than most #4's, and MadBum may be better than all of them, someone will emerge in the spring (Heath Embree?) to pick up for Ramirez. The offense only has to improve a little bit and I think it will. The staff will still be great. I like our chances. They won 86 games last year with ZERO hitting and freakish injuries. It's a 90-win club with some health and good luck. I feel good.

Albert Pujols is the best player in baseball and one of the all time best ever. I have no issue with him getting the best contract. I would do the same in his shoes. He was a champ in St Louis, he had nothing left to prove there, he can go somewhere else and dazzle the fans. Why is that bad? The Angels suffer from being no. 2 in their market. Making a splash like that will improve their team and their attendance. They have a billionaire owner, a great manager, and the ability to produce talent from their farm system. More power to them. Barry Bonds was great in two cities. So was Reggie Jackson. So was Matt Holliday and Jason Giambi and Tim Hudson and Greg Maddux and Pedro Martinez. Why can't Albert do the same?

puh-lease...thats the craziest thing I have ever seen. We traded our best prospect for beltran,j sanchez had a horrible season as did andres and his.228 ba.Best cf? Maybe defensively,but we need guys who can hit. Pagan hits better than torres, and is a better base stealer. Torres had great opportunity here. Giants hazve mostly hispanic player,not sure how many from pr now. It all came down to torres and j sanchez not producing, and sf for some reason being cheap with beltran. I thin we were a bit dissapointed with play of carlos on defense as well as offense.

I don't see why we should be disappointed with Beltran on offense. He hit very nicely despite playing with an injured hand. His defense was ok. Not as good as Nate in right, but plenty good. I guess this year the team will not go for any players in July before the trade deadline, as it would probably cause us to go over the magic 130 million dollar line. You don't sacrifice this year for 2013 or 2014, not when you have this pitching staff. Right now our depth in the starting rotation is not so great. We have 2 possibilities for the 5th spot and neither of them seems to be that good at this point. Surkamp not ready yet, and Zito over the hill. I would think at this point that Noah Lowry could pitch better than Zito. With Beltran or Rollins with a team budget of 145 million, the odds of making the playoffs go up by a quantum orbital.

M.C. FYI, I'm not so sure I agree with your opening statement about Puerto Ricans. Angel Pagan es de Puerto Rico. Nacido en Río Piedras. Puerto Rico hasta el final.(He's from Puerto Rico. Born in Rio Piedras, so he's Puerto Rican all the way). But maybe they'll get rid of him before the season starts, eh?

I think a guy like Javier Lopez is more valuable on the Giants than Carlos Beltran. (And I like Beltran and think he'd be a good fit here.) He's not more valuable in terms of WAR or other metrics, but on a pitching-dependent team, a high-leverage specialist reliever is waaaaaayyyyy more important than another outfielder. The Giants won a World Series with this model. (I don't believe it was a fluke--when you have the best pitching, winning is not flukey.) Remember in 2010 the offense was mediocre, but the Giants beefed up the 'pen with Ramirez and Lopez and then took a chance on Ross and Guillen to help the lineup for the stretch run. Both were journeymen, one delivered big time, one was worthless. I think they believe they can "mix-and-match" in the OF and lineup to control costs so they can spend the money on the increasingly expensive pitching staff. Pitching wins. This we have learned.

On the subject of dollars, the Giants are run by a consortium, not a George Steinbrenner or Artie Moreno-type owner. Consequently they are more conservative and have a committee-like approach. It may not be ideal, but in terms of the MLB only the New York/Chicago teams, Boston, Philly, and Anaheim spend more. The Giants were 8th last season in payroll. They were 10th in 2010. They were 9th in 2003 and 10th in 2002. They will be in the top 1/3 this season. They've proven you can win with a more cautious spending approach. I know they have more money than God Himself, but that's what they are: a profit-making business. I can live with that even if my fantasy team has a $200M payroll.

It looks increasingly like the team will go "all-in" on Brandon Crawford. That's a huge risk, but his glove will VASTLY improve the team defense even if he doesn't hit. I think he will find his stroke. More than that, I LOVE the risk. Everyone complains about Boch and Sabes and greybeards and yet they are fielding a team with youngsters at C, 3B, SS, and possibly LF/1B. (Not to mention the absurdly young Trio of Aces, Sergio Romo, Dan Runzler, etc.) That excites me. I can't wait to see Crawford get his shot.

I guess that a good deal of the angst has to do with the Giants public posturing - they keep stressing that they can't spend any money. They have yet to do anything to take care of what they said was their big priority - signing Lincecum and Cain to long term contracts. Now they seem to indicate that this is not a priority. They also said that they were trying to "fill the hole at shortstop." Then, it became "Crawford's our starter" followed by "Crawford has yet to demonstrate the ability to hit left handed pitching at any level" followed by, "We're set at shortstop." McCovey Chronicles put it well: http://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2011/12/8/2621619/why-you-dont-have-to-be-a-spoiled-brat-to-be-annoyed-with-the-giants. I can understand why the Giants might want to temper fan expectations if they did not intend to sign Beltran (which, apparently, they never did), but to whine about lack of money is just ludicrous. And to put a point on it, today's Chronic has an article about the Warriors maybe moving to SF to a shiny new stadium (on property controlled by the Giants to whom the revenues will flow).

Wouldn't it have been better to just say that you are looking at all the options, and then stress what a great fit Melky and Angel are rather than leave the impression that you signed them because you are penny pinching? I realize that Brian Sabean has to deal with the hand he has been dealt by the owners, but really, they have said just about as much as possible to downplay the notion that they intend to improve.

The Angels - wow. Talk about a statement that kind of leaves you breathless, regardless of the wisdom of a 10 year contract (I hope the Cardinals sign Prince Fielder). The doggers' rotation looks to be much improved, although you can't say the same about their bullpen. Kershaw, Capuano, Billingsley, Lilly and Harang are a pretty solid rotation. Unless they start losing a lot of games in the bullpen, they will be tougher.

Yeah, Sabean used to make me insane with all his cryptic and contradictory bullshit. And I never belive anything CEOs say. Much like politicians, GMs have to cover their asses, as well as roll with the changes. Sabes strikes me as generally uncomfortable talking to the media and he clearly likes to keep things close to the vest. After all, a good poker player has to bluff, too.